AN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHER OF UNIQUE BOOKS

The Cal Wild Chronicles is complete! This magnum opus by Gene O’Neill (illustrated throughout by Orion Zangara) concludes with The Far Future, the fourth and final book in the series. Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy … Gene blends them all.

Book #4 will make its official debut at StokerCon 2017 at the end of this month, and the entire series will be available so you can complete your set. And did I mention the entire set looks gorgeous on bookshelves with its 4-part spine image?

This four book series was a joint effort by Written Backwards and Dark Regions Press. Look below for the cover images for each book in the series. Clicking each will bring you directly to their Amazon.com pages for purchasing so you can collect the whole set in affordable trade paperback.

Adam’s Ladder is officially the next book I’ll be working on for Dark Regions Press, an evolutionary / sci-fi anthology I’m co-editing with Darren Speegle.

Contributor announcements will be leaked soon, as contracts are finalized, so stay tuned. Not too much can be revealed about this project as of yet, other than the fact that it’s full and we are not accepting submissions, but I can tell you that much like You Human, Qualia Nous, The Library of the Dead, and the Chiral Mad anthologies, this one will be epic, and will feature some incredible writers I’ve never had the opportunity of worked with before.

Bones Are Made To Be Broken by Paul Michael Anderson is now available in trade paperback and eBook from Written Backwards, an imprint of Dark Regions Press. This is the first fiction collection by Paul Michael Anderson, and the first fiction collection published by Written Backwards. The book is also available at Amazon.com. Jack Ketchum calls the collection “a dark carnival of rigorous intelligence and compassion.” Jonathan Maberry says it’s “a truly superb collection of deeply unnerving short stories.” And Craig DiLouie says “Bones Are Made To Be Broken challenges the mind and punches the gut.” Is that not enough to convince you?

Written Backwards, the multi-award-winning imprint of Dark Regions Press, continues its saga of producing some of the most beautiful books published today with Bones Are Made To Be Broken, a speculative blend of horror, science fiction, and raw unfiltered emotion by Paul Michael Anderson. 14 works of fiction are collected in this tome, including “All That You Leave Behind,” “To Touch the Dead,” “Love Song for the Rejected,” and a title novella written specifically for this collection. Every story is illustrated by Pat R. Steiner, an award-winning illustrator in the long-running Illustrators of the Future contest, and author of Enlarge Your Tentacles Overnight and Wyrd.

Yeah, it’s that good. Click the links, or the image of the book, and purchase a copy already!

Also available, Other Music, the debut solo novel by Marc Levinthal. This is the first novel in the new Dark Regions Sci-Fi imprint from Dark Regions Press. Other Musicfeatures an introduction by John Skipp, who says the novel is “entirely the kind of forward-thinking, playfully-subversive, nobody-else-could-have-written-this-tickling-at-the-normosphere book I’ve always loved.”

What’s it about?

With the discovery of the Thompson Corridors, the universe has been opened up, connecting humankind with a vast network of sentient species. Xenosociologist Jesse Suzuki, a nanotech-rejuvenated “oldster,” has joined the forced exodus of the newly young, mandated by law to ship out through the Corridors after his 80th birthday. Jesse finds his way to Eastlink, a sprawling human habitat orbiting Shjodathz, home to a race of regenerating beings who maintain direct memory of all their past incarnations. While studying the Shjodathi and their planetary biomachine guardian Kedel, he discovers a strange anomaly within the AI’s mind that leads him on a perilous, mind-blowing adventure… Fans of David Marusek, William Gibson, R.A. Wilson and Philip K. Dick will find common ground here – it’s hard science fiction adventure with an eye toward metaphysics.

And last but not least, The Eighth, the debut novel by Stephanie M. Wytovich.

After Paimon, Lucifer’s top soul collector, falls in love with a mortal girl whose soul he is supposed to claim, he desperately tries everything in his power to save her from the Devil’s grasp. But what happens when a demon has to confront his demons, when he has to turn to something darker, something more sinister for help? Can Paimon survive the consequences of working with the Seven Deadly Sins-sins who have their own agenda with the Devil—or will he fall into a deeper, darker kind of hell?

“The Eighth is a stellar horror debut from Stephanie Wytovich. An intimate, painful map of personal and literal hells that would make Clive Barker proud.” – Christopher Golden, New York Times bestselling author.

Buy all three in either trade paperback or eBook, and / or pre-order the deluxe hardback edition of each now at www.darkregions.com.

What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be real? What does it mean to exist? And most importantly, what does it mean to be human? You, Human, Michael Bailey’s first science fiction anthology for Dark Regions Press, will tackle those heavy questions. Twenty-four mind-bending works by some of the best in the business explore humanism through science fiction’s various sub-genres, split into three sections by poetic law.

The Three Laws of Humanity:

A human being may not injure another human being or, through inaction, allow another human being to come to harm.

A human being must obey the orders given it by other human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law.

A human being must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second laws.

Bram Stoker Award winning editor Michael Bailey brings sci-fi back to Dark Regions Press with heart in this genre-bending anthology of dark science fiction and poetry. With fiction illustrated beautifully throughout by world-renowned artist L.A. Spooner, with poetry and spot illustrations supplied by the always-impressive Orion Zangara, and with an incredible introduction on humanism by New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson(Panacea, the Repairman Jack series), Asimov’s three laws of robotics are re-evaluated and revised to help define humanity.

“I think we can all agree that consciousness, self-awareness, and sentience – the capacity for subjective feelings and perceptions – are indispensable to humanness. The comingling and interaction of all three lead to sapience – the capacity to act with reason and judgment. Apes and dolphins are considered sentient, but not sapient. Sapience builds civilizations.” – from Wilson’s introduction to You, Human.

Dark Regions Pressmakes a return to dark science fiction in this latest of illustrated anthologies by Michael Bailey, the person behind Pellucid Lunacy, the first two volumes of Chiral Mad (1, 2), the Benjamin Franklin Award winning Qualia Nous, the Bram Stoker Award winning The Library of the Dead, and most recently Chiral Mad 3, which was illustrated throughout by legendary artist Glenn Chadbourne and which featured an introduction by Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, Lullaby, Choke, et al).

You, Human will contain the following works of fiction, which will be split into three sections (one for each of the three laws) by poetry. In no particular order:

* UPDATE: pre-order for the deluxe signed/limited edition of The Library of the Dead sold out within the first 24 hours, but the trade paperback is still on sale for 33% off at Dark Regions Press.

The Library of the Dead took home the Bram Stoker Award ® for Superior Achievement in an Anthology at the inaugural StokerCon in Las Vegas, NV, hosted by the Horror Writers Association.

I’m still in shock, and at a loss for words, so I’ll keep this short. StokerCon was quite an event, with a book-signing/release for both Chiral Mad 3(which sold out!) and The Library of the Dead (which moved quite a lot of copies). Many contributors from both anthologies were available and signed copies like mad. We filled out a bunch of tip/signature sheets for the future deluxe limited editions coming soon from Written Backwards / Dark Regions Press, including Chiral Mad 3, The Library of the Dead, You Human (the first science fiction anthology in a long time from DRP), The Cal Wild Chronicles (Gene O’Neill), and Other Music (Marc Levinthal). The best way I can describe this mass-signing chaos is through pictures, which you can find at the end of this post.

A few copies of the deluxe signed/limited hardbound edition of Chiral Mad 3 remain, which can be pre-ordered by clicking the cover image above; this will be signed by everyone involved, except for King. Chuck Palahniuk, Glenn Chadbourne, and all other contributors will be signing these books, so you will want to pick up a copy. The trade paperback is available for purchase now if you don’t want to wait that long.

As for the conference, I served on only one panel this year alongside fellow anthologists Ellen Datlow, Thomas F. Monteleone, and Stephen Jones, attended a few readings, and kicked back to enjoy the company of longtime friends alongside my better half, Kelly Rumble (who for some reason thinks we’re getting married in a few weeks). Some of the highlights of this ultra-packed weekend include hanging out (lunches and drinks and aftermath shenanigans of celebratory Irish Car Bombs) with mentors Tom Monteleone and F. Paul Wilson (who Kelly Laymon calls ‘Pauly’), my own past HWA mentoree, Meghan Arcuri (an excellent writer), and one of the best damn female voices writing today, Erinn Kemper. And who can forget the wonderful Jack Ketchum, who I was able to dine/drink with on two occasions over the last few weeks (thanks to the World Horror Convention two weeks prior). And of course Gene O’Neill, who is always a treat, meeting Scott Edelman for the first time (after publishing a few of his works), as well as hanging with Hal Bodner, Jason V Brock, Stephanie Wytovich, Weston Ochse, Yvonne Navarro, Mercedes Yardley, Marge Simon, Lucy Snyder, Eric Guignard, Rena Mason, and I’m sure I’m missing a few names here, but basically a who’s-who of Written Backwards titles. The most horrific part of weekend was standing in front of a room packed full of my peers to accept not only one Bram Stoker Award ® for The Library of the Dead, but a second statue on behalf of Mort Castle, Sam Weller, Chris Ryall, and Carlos Guzman for Shadow Show: Stories in Celebration of RayBradbury, which won for Superior Achievement in a Graphic Novel.So many great memories… One of the most bizarre, perhaps, was accepting both awards on behalf of Brian Keene, who could not be there (an inside joke).

To help celebrate the Stoker, Dark Regions Press is offering 30% off the trade paperback edition of The Library of the Dead, as well as on pre-orders for the deluxe signed/limited hardbound edition to be released later this year (limited to 26 lettered A-Z). Click the book either above or below, or click here, and enter BRAMSTOKERAWARD as your coupon code when checking out for a 30% discount. If you prefer Amazon, or you run into any problems, you can find it here.

The highly-anticipated third volume in the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Chiral Mad series of psychological horror is now available! This marks the first anthology by Written Backwardsas an imprint of Dark Regions Press.

Click the book cover above to order Chiral Mad 3directly from Dark Regions Press in trade paperback, eBook, or to pre-order one of the 26 deluxe hardcover editions signed by everyone but King (these will go incredibly fast, so if you’re even thinking about ordering a copy, you should probably just order one). We may release this incredible book in hardback later down the road, but if you’re a collector, the signed/lettered deluxe edition will sell out quickly, so act fast.

You can also order a copy of the trade paperback or Ebook editions on Amazon.com. Chiral Mad 3 will also appear in various bookstores and libraries throughout the world, and wholesale pricing will be made available to retailers in Ingram Catalog (ipage). Email written@nettirw.com for more information.

This stunningly beautiful book is illustrated throughout by legendary artist Glenn Chadbourne(45 images), with 400 pages of fiction and symmetrically placed poetry (see full table of contents below), and features a special introduction by Chuck Palahniuk, author of Fight Club and the Bram Stoker Award nominated Beautiful You. Yes, this anthology is insane.

2016 is going to be an exciting year for Written Backwards, which was recently announced as an imprint of Dark Regions Press. The first anthology to be released under this new imprint will be Chiral Mad 3, a book completely illustrated by Glenn Chadbourne and introduced by the wonderful Chuck Palahniuk (Fight Club, the Bram Stoker Award nominated Beautiful You), and will feature fiction by Stephen King, Jack Ketchum, Josh Malerman, Gary A. Braunbeck, Scott Edelman, Richard Chizmar and a bunch of others (including Paul Michael Anderson from the image above), along with interwoven poetry by Elizabeth Massie, Marge Simon, Stephanie M. Wytovich, and a bunch of others. The Confessions of St. Zach, the first novel in The Cal Wild Chronicles by Gene O’Neill (a 4-book series that will also include The Burden of Indigo, The Near Future, and The Far Future) will be out soon as well, and this entire series will be illustrated by Orion Zangara, and will feature individual introductions by John R. Little, Lisa Morton, Meghan Arcuri, and Scott Edelman. But you know about these projects…

What you should be asking yourself is “What can I expect from Written Backwards now that it’s an imprint of Dark Regions Press?” Well, Written Backwards is still going strong, and even stronger thanks to Dark Regions Press. The Allevon series of illustrated novellas will continue (more on this soon), the Chiral Mad series will continue, there will be new anthologies, and perhaps some other fine books. There are many projects lined up through mid-2017, but the first project I can announce deals with the beautiful cover above (created by Pat. R. Steiner).

Later this year, Written Backwards will release its first fiction collection, Bones are Made to be Broken, by Paul Michael Anderson. Paul’s work fits perfectly within the Written Backwards mold. In fact, he’s made an appearance in a few of my projects. His story “In the Nothing-Space, I Am What You Made Me” appeared in Qualia Nous, the also-long-titled “The Agonizing Guilt of Relief (Last Days of a Ready-Made Victim)” will soon appear in the aforementioned Chiral Mad 3, and his most recent story, “The Universe is Dying,” will appear in the science fiction anthology I’m working on for Dark Regions Press called You, Human (I plan to announce this officially within the next few days).

Bones are Made to be Broken will be released in trade paperback, eBook, and 26-lettered limited edition hardback with an expected fall release date.